(Yid With Lid) Sometimes it astounds me the extent to which a progressive “journalist” will go to spin stories in their direction, thus putting politics before serving the readers. Sometimes it astounds me the extent to which a progressive Jew will go to promote their favorite politicians thus putting politics before either their home country, America or the Jewish people.

In his latest column in the paper he publishes, Gary Rosenblatt of the Jewish Week astounded me times two, as he talked about the disastrous ADL/Abe Foxman request for Jews to avoid criticizing the POTUS and warned that if American Jews upset President Obama, he might be really bad toward Israel in a second term.

Case in point: There are no more savvy experts on the mood and politics of the American Jewish community than Abe Foxman and David Harris, professional heads of the ADL and American Jewish Committee, respectively, our two leading mainstream national Jewish defense organizations. But Foxman and Harris seem to have been caught off guard last month by the sharp criticism of their joint National Pledge for Unity on Israel, which they no doubt thought would be widely accepted in the Jewish community — a kind of motherhood-and-apple-pie affirmation of the ongoing power, and need, for bipartisan support in Washington for the Jewish state. The outcries over the unity pledge, particularly on the right, have underscored just how fractured political activists in our community are over Israel. More specifically, the issue speaks to the debate over the wisdom of criticizing the Obama administration, and especially the president himself, as being Israel’s adversary as he seeks re-election.

Things need to be put in context. In this column a progressive publisher, is supporting a progressive advocate who is supporting a progressive president while not admitting to their political bias, which is a disservice to the readers, in the case of the Jewish Week and the donors in the case of the ADL.As I pointed out when the “shut up pledge” was first published, Abe Foxman has been running the ADL as his own personal progressive activist group. Indeed the organization spends as much time promoting progressive social issues such as abortion and illegal immigration as it does Jewish issues. So of course Abe will do just about anything he can to get his progressive prophet re-elected.As for Gary Rosenblatt and his Jewish Week, the paper could be much more profitable if most of the reporters were fired and replaced with press releases from Media Matters, J Street, the DNC, and the Obama White House. And the best part of it all the readers wouldn’t be able to detect anything different. In the interest of full disclosure, let me remind you that I am a columnist for a competitive paper, The Jewish Star.In supposedly “pure news” articles, the Jewish Week shows its bias by only interviewing people with a progressive perspective, trashing the tea party as dangerous, white-washing the Antisemitism of the Occupy movement, criticizing Jews who disagree with Obama, calling people who fight jihad in America “McCarthyists,” supporting the socialist “Jewish Funds for Justice” in its George Soros-directed attacks on Glenn Beck, and much,much,more. With the exception of one reporter by the name of Stewart Ain, every writer for the paper displays a very strong progressive/liberal bias in their writing, whether the story is about politics in the US or Israel. And like most progressives, the paper always finds a way to criticize those who are most observant, which is strange because Rosenblatt is a graduate of Yeshiva University.

In his column Rosenblatt supports Foxman and threatens that if the Jews upset Obama, he might take his revenge out on Israel.

….Responding to widespread criticism from the right [Rosenblatt incorrectly assumes that only people on the right are displeased with Obama on Israel] , the AJC’s Harris posted a blog that made the distinction between “slash and burn” partisanship, where the goal is to attack one’s political enemy, and pro-Israel advocacy, which is grounded in “the here and now,” irrespective of which political party is in and which is out. And the ADL’s Foxman issued a follow-up statement saying that some had distorted the idea behind the pledge [I fact-check Foxman’s defense of the pledge here}

He said the original premise was not to discourage debate but a plea “to avoid harsh and personal rhetoric or tactics in the form of attacks on political opponents’ positions on Israel.” Too late. Obama has already been described as the worst president ever for Israel, and an enemy of the Jewish state.

He is.

…What Harris and Foxman didn’t say, but what is surely on the mind of mainstream [liberal] pro-Israel groups, is that if Obama is re-elected next year, he will be free to carry out foreign policy initiatives in a second term, without political constraints. So it behooves the American Jewish community to be on good terms with him rather than burn its bridges in seeking his defeat.

Here also Rosenblatt is being political rather than honest. Before the 2008 election many Jews predicted that Obama would be awful to Israel, based on previous statements, actions and who his advisers were. The progressive publisher is failing to acknowledge that Obama’s anti-Israel presidency proceeded as many of us warned.Rather than Rosenblatt’s don’t piss off the POTUS scenario allow me to offer a more logical one. Barack Obama has a long history of anti-Israel positions and advisers, except for a brief time in 2008 when it looked as though he might have problems with the Jewish vote.Ignoring the warnings Jewish voter support was extremely high (78%) and he receive the bulk of Jewish presidential campaign donations.Despite all of this support, Obama has been the worst president for Israel in American history, worse than Carter and worse than George H.W. Bush. All this time he knew he would need Jewish support in 2012. So does it really matter whether he gets the support or not? If he was so lousy when he needed the supporters of Israel, if re-elected he will be even worse as he needs no one. That why supporters of Israel should be campaigning hard to make sure that Barack Obama is not re-elected, because whether he likes the Jews or not, he is bound to be worse than he was during the first four years.I would invite Rosenblatt to take a look at the economy, and what has undoubtedly happened to the Jewish Week’s ad pages. Part of the reason for the downturn may be that the Jewish Star hired a new political columnist eleven months ago, but more likely reason is that Barack Obama has not been good to the economy. This too may get even worse during a second term as the president will no longer have to make voters happy.But none of this matters to people like Gary Rosenblatt. Honesty with readers may be part of Journalistic ethics, but as we have learned so many times with the progressive media, journalistic ethics are not very important.

Insane. What is even more insane is how it effects a young Jew’s ability to get a job without starting his own business. People know there is hate out there, but there are economic burdens that come with the hate and people think all Jews have money. Many of us are unemployed and can’t get help because the prejudice is that because we are Jews then we must be smart and have loads of cash.

(Jewish Journal/h/t Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks) A table from the Anti-Defamation League’s “Survey of American Attitudes Toward Jews in America.” The dark blue bars represent the responses of those identified by the survey as “the most anti-Semitic” Americans. The light blue bars represent the general population’s responses. Courtesy ADL and Marttila Strategies. The folks on the fringes of Occupy Wall Street rallies who have been holding signs and hollering slogans about Jewish control of large banking institutions may just be the loudest among the minority of Americans who think Jews have too much influence in the financial sector. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released the results of its most recent “Survey of American Attitudes Toward Jews in America,” on Nov. 3. The survey (pdf) found that 19 percent of Americans thought it was “probably true” that “Jews have too much control/influence on Wall Street.” That’s an increase from the last time the ADL asked the question, in 2009, when only 14 percent of Americans answered that way. In an emailed statement announcing the findings, ADL National Director Abe Foxman attributed the increase in anti-Semitic beliefs among Americans to “the downturn in the economy” and “changing demographics in our society.” The 11-question poll, which was first devised by the ADL in 1964, was administered to 1,754 adults across the country by telephone in October. The survey also found that nearly one in three Americans (30 percent) believes Jews are “more loyal to Israel than to America,” and a similar number (31 percent) feel that “Jews talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust.” The survey did show that most Americans have non-prejudicial things to say about Jews. Seventy-nine percent said Jews “have a strong faith in God,” 64 percent agreed that Jews “have contributed much to cultural life of America,” and 83 percent credited Jews with emphasizing “the importance of family life.”

The winds of change are blowing across the landscape of American Jewish institutions, fanned by grassroots revolts against local Jewish Federation leaderships for their support of positions and programs that threaten Israel. This is not simply a right-wing versus left-wing divide, but rather a demand that local leaderships either change or find themselves with seriously reduced support, popular and financial.

On August 10th, the Jewish Telegraph Agency published an opinion piece by Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) titled, at least on the ADL site, “Shout Down the Sharia Myth Makers.” Within a few weeks, the Foxman op-ed, which attacked those who who are wary of the inroads sharia law is making in the United States, had been, in lockstep fashion, printed in more than two dozen Jewish weeklies subsidized by Jewish Federation charity organizations, ranging from North Jersey’s Jewish Standard to Philadelphia’s Jewish Exponent to Wisconsin’s Jewish Chronicle to Los Angeles’s Jewish Journal.

The ADL has been taken to task for this, including by this writer and by Jewish Culture Examiner himself. Similarly, the ADL has received considerable recent criticism for, among other reasons, its eager support of the construction of “mega-mosques” throughout the United States, including New York, Tennessee and California. The following are some examples of the grassroots revolt taking place:

In Orange County, California, local activists of Ha’Emet (The Truth), have mined state public records and, in the process, unearthed details of how the local Federation funded more than $60,000 in grants to U.C.-Irvine for student trips to meet with Hamas representatives on the West Bank.

In Indianapolis, a new group, the Jewish American Affairs Council of Indiana (JAACI), has opposed local Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) interfaith dialogues with a leading Muslim Brotherhood front group, the Islamic Society of North America, headquartered in nearby Plainfield.

In Manhattan, JCCWatch.org has been very critical of the current UJA-Federation executive director, John Ruskay, for both his high-six-figure compensation and for his support of pro-Palestinian programs.

The Russian Jewish Foundation of Boston, which represents 70,000 (generally politically conservative) Russian-Jewish émigrés, has taken exception to JCRC’s invitation of the local J Street chapter to join. J Street, which Orwellianly operates under the mantra of “Pro-Peace and Pro-Israel”, supports the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. Moreover, J Street had secured significant funding from controversial anti-Israel financier George Soros (born to a Hungarian-Jewish family as György Schwartz).

Then there is the Buffalo Federation, which engaged in planning “dialogue” efforts in Syria with a notorious anti-Semitic imam, via local community terrorism supporters. This was exposed by Dr. Charles Jacobs of Americans for Peace and Tolerance.

In March, 2011, the public learned of the slaughter of five members of the Fogel family in Israel by teenage jihadis. A group of activists dedicated a pledge in memory of the Fogel family, requesting that local Federations oppose sponsorship of speakers supporting boycotts of, sanctions on and divestment from Israel. To date, only the Federation in Sarasota-Manatee County, Florida has signed the Fogel Pledge.

More has to be done to reform local Jewish Federations and JCRCs, as well as the national group, the Jewish Council on Public Affairs. Merely reducing or withholding donations is not enough. Alternative grassroots organizations like JAACI should be established in local communities to become the “go to” Jewish representatives for support of the State of Israel.

Additionally, American Jews can no longer afford to ignore Christian–Zionist organizations, such as Christians United for Israel, which represent tens of millions of believers in the sanctity of G-d’s covenant with his people.Jerry Gordon (senior editor of New English Review), NY Jewish Culture Examiner (h/t Doc’s Talk)

We have an angry Jewish feminist writing about Pamela Waechter. I hear her anger, but she blames Jewish men…

The coming week marks five years since the murder of Pamela Waechter. Who? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, here’s a brief reminder: She was shot in the head by Naveed Afzal Haq, as she tried to crawl down a flight of stairs and escape, after Haq shot her in the chest.

….Still not jogging your memory? How about this: Waechter was the 58-year-old director of the annual campaign of the Jewish Federation of Seattle. Sometime around 4 PM, on July 28, 2006, Naveed Afzal Haq grabbed a 14-year-old girl and thrust a gun in her back. He used her to gain entry to the Federation, and then rampaged through the building, shooting six women — Layla Bush, Christina Rexroad, Cheryl Stumbo, Dayna Klein (who was five months pregnant), Carol Goldman, and, fatally, Pamela Waechter. Tammy Kaiser jumped from a second-story window to escape, and was hospitalized with injuries.

Pamela Waechter

What was Haq’s motive? Well, here’s an interesting clue: As he stormed through the halls, shooting and killing, he shouted, “I’m a Muslim-American! I’m angry at Israel!”

…And yet, the images of the Seattle women under attack are so unbearable that the question must be shrieked from the rooftops: Where are the men?

….And the Jewish men are very busy, you see, cowering in the basement. In 1903, the great poet, Chaim Nachman Bialik, was sent to report on the Kishinev massacre of Jews in Russia. Bialik was shocked by what he learned of the men’s passivity, as their women were raped and murdered before their eyes. He wrote a searing poem, “The City of Slaughter,” excoriating the men hiding in the cellar, who silently watched their loved ones’ destruction:

In that dark corner, and behind that caskCrouched husbands, bridegrooms, brothers, peering from the cracks, Watching the sacred bodies struggling underneathThe bestial breath,Stifled in filth, and swallowing their blood!

where are the Jewish men in Seattle five years later? In jail and first amendment rights were taken away… not to mention other rights like right to be read my rights on arrest or right to avoid being a Jew put in a cage with a bunch of skinheads. Physical intimidation to plead guilty. A right to a fair trial when virtually tarred and feathered on the news. told by Muslim guards named Mohammad before extradition that we can not pray in Hebrew because it is elitist. Of course Palestinian sympathizers couldn’t possibly be involved because the judge doesn’t believe that has anything to do with it… it isn’t like there isn’t violence associated with it’s sympathizers. and it isn’t like as if we might have any documents that just might prove that a non Jew was very preoccupied with what she called, “Nazi Sympathizing Jews”. It isn’t like as if a woman left it completely vague as to who these Jews were…. maybe the Jews she knew or the Jews she knew in the past? You know? Zionists? But she leaves it vague… leaving it to her listener to attack any Jew. the truth is only the accused know. It couldn’t be… that could not of happened… because as we all know… It could not be written about… because how ? …the right to blog is was taken away from us. Arrested for writing without a previous arrest. Writing on a private facebook profile. Prior Restraint? It could not be that which happened. There could not of been evidence that a person was insane making the allegations and the authority ignored that anyway. There could not of been evidence that the woman was a stalker…. nah… could not of happened. Should this little excerpt be a reason to arrest again… it may not be this person talking… it might be someone else. How could anyone know the context of all of this? of course they will jump to a conclusion anyway… because we are talking about a man… and we are talking about Washington state… where the ladies have problems with men… how do they expect us to stand up for women when we can’t even legally talk about gender online without being censored and arrested? So is this the MAN IN THE GLASS HOUSE? I hear he dresses in the basement. Washington State men are second class citizens. Yes the ladies get violated… sometimes even killed. And now our rights as men are taken away. We can not stand up for our community if you deny us men fairness because of our gender.

ADL dubs Clinton’s Russian immigration remark ‘amateur analysis’

Nonsense… and this is why we can not count on the ADL. Clinton and his wife have a history of ethnic cleansing against Jews in Judea and Samaria. The context is clear. Racism is always too simple. He is complaining that the Israeli state is growing. Shame on Bill Clinton and shame on the ADL for enabling our enemies again.

Top Israeli officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Soviet dissident turned Israeli parliamentarian Natan Sharansky, reacted with disappointment Wednesday to comments by former President Bill Clinton casting Israel’s Russian immigrant population as an obstacle to the Middle East peace process. Sharansky even accused Clinton of inappropriately trafficking in ethnic stereotypes about Israelis. “If the reports of President Clinton’s comments are accurate, I am particularly disappointed by the president’s casual use of inappropriate stereotypes about Israelis, dividing their views on peace based on ethnic origins. I must add that these are uncharacteristic comments from a man who has always been a sensitive and thoughtful listener and conversation partner,” said Sharansky, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.…Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also reacted strongly Wednesday, calling Clinton’s comments “distressing,” according to the Israeli news wire Ynet. “As a friend of Israel, Clinton should know that the immigrants from the former Soviet Union have contributed and are making a great contribution to the advancement, development and strengthening of the IDF and the State of Israel. Only a strong Israel can establish solid and safe peace,” Netanyahu reportedly said.Sharansky also denied that he participated in a conversation with Clinton years ago where he used his Russian identity as a reason to oppose a land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians.…Yisrael Beitenu, an Israeli political party whose supporters are made up of mostly Russian immigrants, called Clinton’s comments “crude generalizations.” Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver, one of the leaders of the party, said that nobody should attempt to divide Israeli groups in such a way.“The immigrants of Russia contributed to the development of the state of Israel in every field, including science, culture, sports, economy and defense. This year, the entire country is celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Russian aliyah. This shows that the Israeli people are united,” the Jerusalem Post reported her saying.Not all Israeli leaders were upset. Coalition Chairman and Russian immigrant Zeev Elken praised Clinton’s remarks. “I am proud of former President Clinton’s distinctions. He made the right distinction that the Russian speakers and settlers have been carrying the Zionism banner in the State of Israel in recent years,” he told Ynet.

I guess that calling ‘settlers’ an ‘obstacle to peace’ is okay for most people, even in Israel. But at least Zev Elkin (Likud) acknowledges that they’re Zionists.